Parental leave has been a big topic of conversation lately, as a growing number of companies look to increase their offerings for new moms and dads. Now, Facebook is expanding on a benefit that rarely gets attention: bereavement leave.

On Tuesday, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg announced that the company now offers more extensive paid leave for employees who have lost a family member. Employees will receive 20 days off for the death of an immediate family member and 10 days for the death of a member of their extended family. The benefit went into effect on January 1, and it doubles the leave time that was previously given to employees who suffered a loss, Fortune reports.

Sandberg, who lost her husband, Dave Goldberg, in 2015, explained the reasoning behind the expansion in her Facebook post. “There have been many times when I've been grateful to work at companies that supported families,” she wrote. “When my son was born and I could take time off to focus on him. When my daughter came along and I got that time all over again. Every time one of them got sick, both my husband Dave and I had the ability to leave work to take care of them so we could decide whose turn it was to supply the patient with ginger ale.”

And when Goldberg died suddenly at 47, Sandberg says she needed time to grieve. “Amid the nightmare of Dave's death when my kids needed me more than ever, I was grateful every day to work for a company that provides bereavement leave and flexibility,” she wrote. “I needed both to start my recovery.”

Sandberg says she knows how rare it is to be granted extensive paid bereavement time, even though she strongly believes it shouldn’t be. “Only 60 percent of private sector workers in the United States get paid time off after the death of a loved one and usually just a few days,” she said.

However, she adds, “people should be able both to work and be there for their families. No one should face this trade-off.” And, she points out, companies that offer benefits like this “do the right thing” while improving their bottom line by increasing employee loyalty and performance.

Because people are wired for connection and intimate bonds, losing a loved one is like losing a part of yourself, Jared DeFife, Ph.D., a relationship therapist in Atlanta, tells SELF. "It can affect your basic sense of safety and security," he says. "We're not designed to just pick up and carry about our lives as if nothing has happened."

That's why Paul Coleman, Psy.D., author of Finding Peace When Your Heart Is in Pieces, tells SELF that time off work can make it easier to grieve losing a loved one. That time allows you space to honor the loss and try to absorb what has happened. “It takes time to sort through all the why or how questions,” he says. The time it takes can be long or short depending on the person, but Coleman notes that grief is an ongoing process.

People tend to view grief as similar to depression, but DeFife says they're two different beasts. "Healthy grief is actually expansive—it moves us to connect closer with our support systems, to give and share with others, and, most importantly, to celebrate, share memories, and make meaning of the loss and the life you shared together," he says.

Zander agrees. "The more you deal with it, the better you will feel," she says. "There is no rug under which you can or should shove these emotions."

“’Taking time to grieve’ is perhaps not the best way to envision the process because there is no time limit,” Coleman says. “What is normal for one person regarding grief is not the same as someone else.” And, Coleman notes, there is no accepted time after which a person should no longer be grieving the loss of a loved one.

The grieving process can vary depending on how unexpected a person’s death was and how people handle grief, clinical psychologist John Mayer, Ph.D., author of Family Fit: Find Your Balance in Life, tells SELF. “When death hits us like a thud, taking time off is important for many purposes—coping with the reality of the loss, taking care of many ‘affairs’ of the person and yourself [that need to get] put in order, and just coping with the emotional overload of the loss,” he says.

However, Mayer adds, if the death was expected, such as when someone had suffered from a prolonged illness, getting back to work can be a good coping mechanism for some people. Some time is still necessary, though—and without it, DeFife says a person dealing with grief is in danger of suffering from added anxiety or depression. In more severe cases, Mayer says that a person can even be in danger of suffering an emotional breakdown.

Some people need to get back into certain routines right away, like caring for children or working if their company doesn’t offer paid time off and they need the money. Routines can be comforting in some way, Coleman says. But, he adds, they’re never quite the same as they were before. “New paths must be walked, new experiences must happen,” he says.

Mayer stresses that people should expect to grieve for a long time, and to allow themselves to do that to the best of their ability. “You will think about and emotionally react to a loss for a long time because your loved ones live in your heart and mind forever,” he says.